THE THREE MEN THAT SHELTERED IN A CAVE

Prophet Muhammad
praise and peace be upon him
with a quiz
by
Nor and Khadijah
Mosque of the Internet
Once upon a time there were three men who set out upon a journey together. It has been a nice day when they left their homes, but now it was getting late and clouds started to gather and darken as the sun hid behind them.
One of the three men said: "I think we better look for somewhere to shelter, it looks like a storm is brewing," and the others agreed.
There wasn't a village anywhere in sight, however, there were some caves in the mountains nearby, so they decided to find one large enough and spend the night in it.
As they started to climb the narrow mountain paths the rain started to fall. Their clothes were getting wet so they hurried along until they found a nice dry cave and decided that it was just right for them to spend the night in.
The rain became so heavy that it wasn't long before little rocks started to tumble down the side of the mountain and the wind started to howl outside the cave.
Every now and then there was a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning that lit up the surrounding mountains with its bright flashes.
The three men thanked Allah that they were nice and dry, and started to make themselves as comfortable as possible for the long night ahead of them.
The storm worsened, and streams of water rushed down the side of the mountain. The rain lashed against the rocks outside and the wind howled louder than ever!
Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and rocks of all shapes and sizes bounced and rolled passed the entrance of the cave. Then, there was an even louder noise as a huge boulder crashed its way down the side of the mountain.
The rumbling grew louder and louder, the sound echoed in the cave -- everything was so dark and the three men moved back deeper into the cave for safety.
Suddenly, the loudest noise of all stopped. The three men wondered what had happened so they decided to feel their way back along the side of the dark cave its entrance.
Much to their horror they found that the deafening noise they had heard had been made by a huge boulder that had now lodged itself at the entrance of their cave. The entrance was completely blocked - there was no way out!
Now the three men were strong, so they pushed and pushed the boulder with all their might to try and make a gap large enough for them to crawl through. But no matter how hard they tried, the boulder would not move one single inch!
"It's no good," said one of the men, "we will never be able to move this boulder by ourselves, it's just too large. Our only hope is to ask Allah to help us. Perhaps if we ask Him on the merit of a good deed we have done He will accept our prayers and help us."
They all agreed that this was the only way and that they would each pray to Allah and ask Him to help them.
The first man thought for a while, then he remembered something he would do for his elderly parents each night before they went to sleep.
He had never forgotten his parents' kindness to him when he was young. He remembered how they had looked after him and cared for him.
Now that they were old, he had a chance to show them his love, and respect. He also knew that Allah loves those who are kind to their parents. So he thought to himself that perhaps if he asked Allah by the goodness of the deed he had in mind, Allah would in His Mercy remove the boulder.
So he prayed saying: "O Allah, my parents were very old, so each night I use to take them a drink of milk before they slept. I always give them their milk first, before anyone else in my family, to show how much I loved and respected them.
However, one night I was very late getting home. I had been searching for some fodder for my cattle, but it had taken longer than usual to find. It was so late that my parents had fallen asleep before I could take them their milk.
I didn't like to wake them to give them their milk, nor did I want to give the rest of my family any milk without having given my parents theirs first, so I waited patiently beside them until the dawn came with the jug in my hand.
The children were hungry and started to cry and my parents awoke, so I gave them their milk. O Allah, I did this seeking Your pleasure, please help us now."
There was a noise and the boulder moved, but it was not enough to let them crawl out.
It was now the turn of the second man. He prayed to Allah saying: "O Allah, I had a cousin and I wanted to abuse her, but she would not let me.
Then a famine came, it was a hard time for everyone and she came to me asking for help. I said that I would give her a hundred and twenty dinars if she would do what I wanted. She was desperate and agreed, but just as I was about to abuse her she said: 'Fear Allah, and do not break His Law.' I felt so ashamed and sorry, so I told her to go and take the money as a gift. O Allah, I did this seeking Your pleasure."
Once again their was a noise and the boulder moved yet again, but it still did not move enough to let them crawl out.
It was the turn of the third man. He prayed to Allah saying: "O Allah, once I hired some laborers to work for me. As soon as they finished their work I gave all of them their pay; that is all except one who left before I had a chance to pay him.
I wondered what would be the best thing I could do with this man's pay; it did not belong to me. Then it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to invest it in some cattle for him.

Time passed and the laborer still had not returned to collect his pay. The cattle had calves and soon he had large herds of different animals, so I bought some servants from the sale of some of the cattle to take care of his herds.
Then, one day when I was in the market I saw him. I was very happy that he had returned.
Before I could say anything, he asked me for his pay. I invited him to come with me and showed him his servants tending his camels, cattle and goats and said: "All this is yours!" The man thought I was joking and said: "Worshiper of Allah, do not make fun of me!" But I assured him that I was not joking, and that all of it belonged to him because I had invested his pay for him.
The man was very pleased and took all of it and left nothing. O Allah, I did this seeking Your pleasure, please help us to get out of here!"
With that, there was a very loud noise and the boulder moved, in fact it moved so much that the three men did not even have to crawl out of the cave. They were able to leave without even bending their heads!
You can imagine just how happy they were to get out of the cave. They all knew that they must keep trying harder to please Allah and do more good deeds.
The rain had stopped. The air smelt so fresh and good. The sun shone once more and the birds sang just as if there had never been a storm and the three men set off on their journey once again, praising and thanking Allah for His Mercy.